St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Visits Seton Hall Sunday
1/19/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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QUEENS, N.Y. - The St. John's men's basketball team begins a two game road series on Sunday afternoon when the Johnnies visit the Prudential Center to take on Seton Hall (12-6, 2-4). The 96th all-time meeting between the original BIG EAST rivals will tip off at noon on FS1.
FOX Sports announcers Rich Ackerman and Len Elmore are on the call for the national telecast. The broadcast is also available through FOX Sports Go.
John Minko and Vin Parise can be heard on the St. John's IMG Radio broadcast that airs on 570 AM WMCA and through TuneIn Radio. The pregame show featuring the Chris Mullin Report begins at 11:40 a.m.
Fresh off a 10-point victory over DePaul before a sell-out crowd at Carnesecca Arena, St. John's (9-11, 3-4) looks to carry the momentum to Newark for its first regular-season meeting with the Pirates, who have yet to lose at the Prudential Center this season. Malik Ellison had a career night that helped the Johnnies complete the regular-season sweep of the Blue Demons. The 6-foot-6 sophomore guard from Voorhees, N.J. finished with 23 points on 7-of-10 shooting and five 3-pointers.
As a team, the Johnnies nailed 12 3-pointers against DePaul, which marked the 10th time this season the squad finished with double digits in the 3-point column. Shamorie Ponds had four of those triples, increasing his season total to 55, while the Red Storm converted 54.5 percent of its attempts from downtown on the night.
Tariq Owens shined on both ends of the court against the Blue Demons as the sophomore forward came up one rebound shy of his second double-double. The BIG EAST's blocks leader also swatted four more shots to raise his season average to 2.5.
In order to bring Seton Hall's two game win streak in the series to a halt on Sunday, the Johnnies will need to neutralize the Pirates production on the glass that has been anchored by junior forward Angel Delgado (12.0 rpg), the fourth leading rebounder in the nation. Seton Hall leads the BIG EAST with 40.4 rebounds per contest.
The Pirates talented core of upperclassmen also includes juniors Khadeen Carrington (17.8 ppg) and Desi Rodriguez (16.6 ppg) who have a slight edge on St. John's freshmen Ponds (17.1 ppg) and Marcus LoVett (16.4 ppg) as the highest scoring teammates in the conference.
LoVett has played particularly well in the Red Storm's six road games this season, as the 6-foot guard has a team-high 20.0 scoring average with a 53 percent field goal shooting mark and 4.8 assists per game. Ponds has scored 17.8 points per game on the road, while the Johnnies will also look for Ellison to continue his stellar play of late as the New Jersey native has averaged a team-best 16.5 points and 3.5 assists in the last two games.
St. John's owns a 58-37 advantage in the series with Seton Hall, including a 33-28 mark in BIG EAST play. The teams first met in 1909 and have played every season since 1963-64.
In the last meeting on Feb. 21, 2016 at Madison Square Garden, St. John's battled back from a 19-point deficit and led by as many as three late in the second half before 13,204 fans at "The World's Most Famous Arena." The Pirates, however, escaped with a 62-61 victory after Isaiah Whitehead was put on the line with five seconds remaining and drained the decisive free-throws.
Seton Hall enters Sunday's matchup having lost its past three games, falling on the road at Marquette, Providence and No. 1/2 Villanova. In the most recent 30-point setback to the defending national champion Wildcats, Rodriguez was the only Pirate to score double-figures finishing with 15 points.
St. John's will finish out its two game road stretch on Wednesday against Providence before returning to MSG to host Xavier (Jan. 29) and Marquette (Feb. 1).
